Craig Breedlove sets new land-speed record

Author

Website Name

Year Published

Title

URL

Access Date

October 16, 2017

Publisher

A+E Networks

On November 15, 1965 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 28-year-old Californian Craig Breedlove sets a new land-speed record–600.601 miles an hour–in his car, the Spirit of America, which cost $250,000 and was powered by a surplus engine from a Navy jet. He actually drove across the desert twice that day, since international world-record rules require a car to make two timed one-mile runs in one hour. (Officials log the average speed of the two trips.) During his first trip, Breedlove traveled at a rate of 593.178 mph; during his second, the first time any person had officially gone faster than 600 mph, he traveled at a rate of 608.201 mph. “That 600 is about a thousand times better than 599,” he said afterward. “Boy, it’s a great feeling.”

For nearly 20 years, the fastest man on land had been England’s John Cobb, who had driven his internal-combustion Railton Special a record 394.2 mph at the salt flats in 1947. (Bonneville was a popular place for drag races and speed tests because, unlike concrete, its salt surface absorbed plenty of water, which kept the track cool.) But in October 1963, Breedlove piloted a three-wheeled version of the Spirit of America to a new record: 407.45 mph.

Then, the floodgates opened: For the next two years, Breedlove and two other racers–Tom Green and Art Arfons, who drove a home-built machine that he called the Green Monster–passed the land-speed title around like a hot potato. They broke the record six times in one year, something no one had done since 1904.

In October 1964, Breedlove became the first man to go faster than 500 mph, and he nearly died in the process: The Spirit of America’s parachute–the machine’s braking mechanism–snapped off at the end of the mile, and Breedlove careened off the track, through a stand of telephone poles, and into a salt pond. He escaped through the car’s rooftop hatch with a new record: 526.28 mph. Arfons shattered that record a year later, but his glory was fleeting. Just over a week later, Breedlove and his jet car zoomed past the 600 mph mark.

Arfons vowed that he’d be back, but he’d damaged the Green Monster during his record-breaking run and could never quite fix it. Instead, Breedlove held the title for nearly five years, until Gary Gabelich coaxed his rocket-powered Blue Flame to an average speed of 622.4 mph. The current land-speed record, set by Britain’s Andy Green in 1997, is 766.069 mph–faster than the speed of sound.

Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

Also on this day

On this day in 1867, the first stock ticker is unveiled in New York City. The advent of the ticker ultimately revolutionized the stock market by making up-to-the-minute prices available to investors around the country. Prior to this development, information from the New York Stock Exchange, which has been around...

After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress, sitting in its temporary capital of York, Pennsylvania, agrees to adopt the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union on this day in 1777. Not until March 1, 1781, would the last of the 13 states, Maryland, ratify the agreement.
In 1777, Patriot leaders,...

On November 15, 1965 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 28-year-old Californian Craig Breedlove sets a new land-speed record—600.601 miles per hour—in his car, the Spirit of America, which cost $250,000 and is powered by a surplus engine from a Navy jet. He actually drove across the desert twice...

On this day in 1864, Union General William T. Sherman begins his expedition across Georgia by torching the industrial section of Atlanta and pulling away from his supply lines. For the next six weeks, Sherman’s army destroyed most ofthe statebefore capturing the Confederate seaport of Savannah, Georgia.Sherman captured Atlanta in...

In a long and rambling interview with an American reporter, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claims that the Soviet Union has missile superiority over the United States and challenges America to a missile “shooting match” to prove his assertion. The interview further fueled fears in the United States that the...

Mamie Snow, a mentally disabled white woman from Waukegan, Illinois, claims that James Montgomery, a black veteran, factory worker, and homeowner raped her. Montgomery, who was promptly thrown in jail, spent more than 25 years in prison before his conviction was overturned and he was released.
From the start, Montgomery’s trial...

A plane carrying Muslim pilgrims from Mecca to Indonesia crashes in Sri Lanka on this day in 1978, killing 183 people.
The Icelandic Airlines DC-8 was chartered by Garuda Indonesian Airways to carry Muslim pilgrims back to Indonesia from their trek to Mecca. The flight was scheduled to takeoff from Jeddah...

After a 49-year reign, Pedro II, the second and last emperor of Brazil, is deposed in a military coup.The Brazilian monarchy was established in 1822, when Portugal’s crown prince, Dom Pedro, defied his Parliament and proclaimed an independent Brazil under his rule. The Brazilian empire got off to a rough...

Erwin Rommel, the German commander known as the “Desert Fox” for his cunning in North Africa during World War II, is born in Heidenheim, Germany.
Rommel’s father and grandfather were teachers, but he chose a military career for himself, enlisting in the German army as an officer cadet in 1910. He...

“Baby Fae,” a month-old infant who had received a baboon-heart transplant, dies at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. The infant, named Baby Fae by doctors to protect her parents’ anonymity, was born with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, an almost always fatal deformity found in newborns in which...

On this day in 1956, Love Me Tender, featuring the singer Elvis Presley in his big-screen debut, premieres in New York City at the Paramount Theater. Set in Texas following the American Civil War, the film, which co-starred Richard Egan and Debra Paget, featured Elvis as Clint Reno, the younger...

On this day in 1859, Charles Dickens’ serialized novel, A Tale of Two Cities, comes to a close, as the final chapter is published in Dickens’ circular, All the Year Round.
Dickens was born in 1812 and attended school in Portsmouth. His father, a clerk in the navy pay office, was...

At a time when classical music received nearly as much coverage as professional sports in the popular press, it was major news indeed when an unknown 25-year-old led the nation’s most important symphony orchestra in a Carnegie Hall concert broadcast live to a radio audience in the millions. For The...

Approaching the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains during his second exploratory expedition, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike spots a distant mountain peak that looks “like a small blue cloud.” The mountain was later named Pike’s Peak in his honor.
Pike’s explorations of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory of the United States began...

On this day in 1977, President Jimmy Carter welcomes Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran, and his wife, Empress (or “Shahbanou”) Farrah, to Washington. Over the next two days, Carter and Pahlavi discussed improving relations between the two countries. Two years later, the two leaders’ political fates would be...

Gen. Earle Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addresses a gathering at Brown University and approximately 60 students walk out to protest his defense of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Some of those who remained shouted and heckled Wheeler, while others attempted to storm the stage. Outside,...

Following a symbolic three-day “March Against Death,” the second national “moratorium” opens with mass demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Organized by the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (“New Mobe”), an estimated 500,000 demonstrators rallied in Washington as part of the largest such rally to date....

On November 15, 1917, with his country embroiled in a bitter international conflict that would eventually take the lives of over 1 million of its young men, 76-year-old Georges Clemenceau is named prime minister of France for the second time.
The young Clemenceau was first elected to parliament in 1876, five...

On this day in 1943, Heinrich Himmler makes public an order that Gypsies and those of mixed Gypsy blood are to be put on “the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.”
Himmler was determined to prosecute Nazism racial policies, which dictated the elimination from Germany and German-controlled territories...